SXSW

7:27 am

Thu March 6, 2014

Lady Gaga to Perform at SXSW (Update)

Update: South by Southwest announced this morning that Lady Gaga will perform at this year's festival. She's set to take the stage Thursday, March 13. The City of Austin had originally denied a request to have Lady Gaga perform, citing concerns that the Doritos venue wasn't big enough.

So, SXSW is moving that venue for one night to the Stubb's Waller Creek Amphitheater at Eighth and Red River streets.

But Austin police commander William Mano says the space is not big enough for Lady Gaga.

"We would love to have that caliber of performer come to Austin, it just needs to be in the correct venue that can accommodate someone of her caliber," Mano said. "Having someone that can draw 30,000 to 40,000 people in a location that only accommodates 800 creates a lot of crowd issues."

Mano says the promoter is still working with the city to find an appropriate venue.

City organizers this year appear to be more cautious about containing the size of SXSW and other events that try to piggyback off the two-week festival. For the first time ever, city officials stopped accepting new SXSW permit applications before the deadline.

Of the 154 event applications the city reviewed, most were not official SXSW events, Mano said.

"The last several years, we've seen Austin become more and more of a spring break destination," he said. "The major growth, as far as the temporary influx of people coming to visit Austin, is for the non-South by Southwest activities that are going on around town."